Better World Books Stance on Google Books Settlement

Posted by Jack on 11.18.2008 at 12:00 pm

The long awaited settlement for the Author’s Guild, AAP and Google is official.  Under the settlement, “Google will have the right to make browsable copies of the books it has scanned through its Library Project as well as books scanned in through its regular Book Search program.”

From Publisher’s Weekly:

As part of the $125 million settlement, Google will pay $45 million to settle the class action lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild. Authors whose books have already been scanned will receive at least $60 per work. Another $34.5 million will go toward the creation of a Book Rights Registry that will be responsible for building a database of rightsholders information and for disbursing all money generated through the use of books in Google Products and Services. (The remaining $45.5 million will go to legal and attorney fees). Under the deal, Google will receive 37% of revenue and rightsholders 63%. Publishers and authors will have 120 days to opt out of the settlement once the agreement receives approval from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, something that is expected to take several months.

How does this affect us? Well, Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Author News, google, our stance, publishing

Using Your Searches to Donate Money!

Posted by Jack on 11.19.2007 at 11:30 am

I personally am a Google guy.  With the interconnected nature of Firefox/Camino/Safari/Internet Explorer and the famed search engine, there are many people who would likely agree with my decision.  Well if Google is your engine of choice, I have a great site for you, and if it isn’t your cup of tea take a minute to consider the following:

Search Kindly

Search Kindly is a site that uses Google to search
(comes up with the exact same results, notice:

search “Better World Books is awesome” on Google
search “Better World Books is awesome” on Search Kindly

see?)

Anyway, the reason you should consider the switch is because Search Kindly donates all of the money they make off of advertising to the programs that users vote on everyday (the organization of choice changes every month).  They are a non-profit “dedicated to the idea of micro-volunteerism and micro-philanthropy i.e. a lot of people doing a little is better than a few people doing a lot.”

They’re making money and sending it to some great places including Wildlife Direct, Invisible Children and Friends in Deed along with others.

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, fundraising, google, non-profits, search